CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Annual Report”) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or our future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “might,” “possible,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report include statements about:
•our ability to recognize anticipated benefits of the Business Combination (defined below), which may be affected by, among other things, our ability to grow and manage growth profitably following the closing of the Business Combination;
•our ability to commercialize the Aurora Driver safely, quickly, and broadly on the timeline we expect;
•the market for autonomous vehicles and our market position;
•our ability to compete effectively with existing and new competitors;
•the ability to maintain the listing of our Class A Common Stock and warrants on Nasdaq;
•our ability to raise financing in the future;
•anticipated trends, growth rates, and challenges in our business and in the markets in which we operate;
•our ability to effectively manage our growth and future expenses;
•the sufficiency of our cash and cash equivalents to meet our operating requirements;
•our success in retaining or recruiting, or changes required in, our officers, key employees or directors;
•the impact of the regulatory environment and complexities with compliance related to such environment;
•our ability to successfully collaborate with business partners;
•our ability to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce our intellectual property;
•economic and industry trends or trend analysis;
•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; and
•other factors detailed under the section entitled “Risk Factors.”
We caution you that the foregoing list does not contain all of the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report.
You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this Annual Report. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report. We cannot assure you that the results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.
Neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of these forward-looking statements. Moreover, the forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this Annual Report to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. You should not place undue reliance on our forward-
looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments we may make.
Part I
INFORMATION ABOUT AURORA
Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this section to the “Company,” “Aurora,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to the business of Aurora Innovation Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries prior to the consummation of the Business Combination (defined below), and to Aurora Innovation, Inc. and its subsidiaries after the completion of the Business Combination.
Corporate History and Background
On November 3, 2021 (the “Closing Date”), Reinvent Technology Partners Y (“RTPY”), now known as Aurora Innovation, Inc., consummated a business combination with Aurora Innovation Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (f/k/a Aurora Innovation, Inc. and f/k/a Avian U Merger Holdco Corp. and referred to herein as “Legacy Aurora”) , and RTPY Merger Sub Inc., a Delaware corporation and a direct wholly owned subsidiary of RTPY (“Merger Sub”), pursuant to an Agreement and Plan of Merger dated July 14, 2021 (the “Merger Agreement” and the transactions contemplated thereby, the “Business Combination”), by and among RTPY, Legacy Aurora and Merger Sub. Our Class A common stock and public warrants are listed on Nasdaq under the symbols “AUR” and “AUROW,” respectively. Our Class B common stock is neither listed nor publicly traded.
Pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement, a business combination between the Company and Legacy Aurora was effected through the merger of Merger Sub with and into Legacy Aurora, with Legacy Aurora surviving as the surviving company and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of RTPY. On the Closing Date, the Company changed its name from Reinvent Technology Partners Y to Aurora Innovation, Inc.
Company Overview
Our mission is to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.
Aurora was founded in 2017 by Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson, and Drew Bagnell, three of the most prominent leaders in the self-driving space. Led by a team with deep experience, we are developing the Aurora Driver based on what we believe to be the most advanced and scalable suite of self-driving hardware, software, and data services in the world to fundamentally transform the global transportation market. The Aurora Driver is designed as a platform to adapt and interoperate amongst a multitude of vehicle types and applications. As of December 31, 2021, it has been successfully integrated into eight different vehicle platforms designed to meet its requirements: from passenger vehicles to light commercial vehicles to Class 8 trucks. By creating a common driver platform for multiple vehicle types and use cases, the capabilities we develop in one market reinforce and strengthen our competitive advantages in other areas. For example, the capabilities needed for a truck to move safely at highway speeds would also be critical in ride hailing when driving a passenger to the airport via a highway. We believe this is the right approach to bring self-driving to market and will enable us to capitalize on a massive opportunity, including the $4 trillion global trucking market, the $5 trillion passenger mobility market, and the $400 billion local goods delivery market.
Beyond the economic opportunity, we believe we have a unique opportunity to affect a material positive impact on the lives of millions of people, while also improving business productivity. First and foremost, we are focused on the opportunity to greatly improve road safety. Every year more than a million people lose their lives on the world’s roads, and we believe we can meaningfully reduce this number. In trucking, we can enable logistics networks to move goods more efficiently, and also help fill the shortage of 80,000 truck drivers as of 2021 by providing a self-driving option. We will expand access to transportation, improving the lives of approximately 25.5 million people with a disability in the U.S. who have difficulty traveling outside of the home. And we will give people back their time; the average driver spends the equivalent of 10 days a year commuting—time that can be made more productive and enjoyable.
We intend to launch trucking as our first driverless product, as we believe its massive scale, significant structural need, attractive unit economics, and self-similar operating environment will allow us to rapidly deploy and profitably scale on high-volume, highway-focused routes. Drafting on the revenue and technical capability we expect this trucking product to generate, we plan to leverage the extensibility of the Aurora Driver to deploy and scale into the passenger mobility and local goods delivery markets. Today, we operate our self-driving test vehicle fleet in diverse weather and operating environments, across the Bay Area, Pittsburgh and Texas, allowing us to create a more robust self-driving system. We also carry truck freight on behalf of our partners in preparation for driverless commercialization.
Our first-principles approach, which we define as “Self-Driving 2.0,” underpins our technology development strategy for the Aurora Driver. We made foundational investments early on, based on our prior experience in the self-driving industry, that allow us to accelerate development and position our platform for long-term scalability. Some of these foundational investments include developing the Aurora Driver with what we believe to be the optimal combination of machine-learned and rule-based approaches. We have also built a proprietary Virtual Testing Suite, which makes our development more efficient and faster than traditional approaches that rely heavily on on-road vehicle fleets. While many companies in the self-driving industry tout miles driven as a metric, our Virtual Testing Suite allows us to iterate faster and more efficiently, while reducing our reliance on on-road testing.
We have also invested in our next-generation sensing suite, which combines the best of camera, radar, and lidar. This includes developing our Aurora FirstLight Lidar, which uses proprietary frequency modulated continuous wave (“FMCW”) technology that enables long-range sensing, and simultaneous detection of both the position and velocity of objects. We believe that when combined with our industry-leading sensor suite and perception system, this technology uniquely enables safe operation at highway speeds and is unmatched by our competitors’ alternative solutions. We believe this unlocks the $4 trillion global trucking market, as trucks must be capable of operating at up to 65 miles per hour and 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, necessitating redundant long-range sensing in order to plan and take action appropriately. High-speed operation is also key to unlocking the full opportunity set across passenger mobility and local goods delivery, where a significant percentage of trips require operation on highways and other high-speed roads.
To bring our product to market at scale, we focus on what we do best – building self-driving technology – and through strategic partnerships work with best-in-class companies to deliver the benefits of our technology broadly. We have strategic partnerships with:
•PACCAR & Volvo, who together represent nearly 50% of US Class 8 truck sales.
•Toyota, the #1 passenger vehicle manufacturer by volume globally.
•Uber, the largest ride hailing company globally.
With these strategic partnerships, each party is making significant investments towards integrating the Aurora Driver into their vehicles and logistics and mobility networks. We believe that partnering with other industry leaders enables us to scale more efficiently, as it allows us to focus on what we do best – developing the Aurora Driver—while our partners handle activities such as vehicle manufacturing, fleet ownership, and operation. We are proud that these industry leaders have selected Aurora as their self-driving partner. During 2021, we launched commercial trucking pilots with Fedex and Uber Freight in which we began regularly and autonomously hauling loads under the supervision of vehicle operators, and also exploring integrating access to Uber Freight’s digital freight network within our autonomous trucking product.